1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compact zoom lens suitable for use in video cameras and still video cameras, a camera apparatus using the zoom lens, and a portable information terminal apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
In a zoom lens for use in video cameras and still video cameras, recently, as demands for a higher zooming ratio, a wider field angle and a higher resolution increase, and at the same time for meeting demands for a smaller size, a lighter weight and a reduced cost, reducing the overall length and the outer diameter of the zoom lens and decreasing the number of pieces of lens composing the zoom lens are becoming imperative.
As a zoom lens for meeting the above-described demands, a type of zoom lens has been proposed, in which, in order from the object side, a first lens group having a positive refracting power, a second lens group having a negative refracting power, a third lens group having a positive refracting power, a fourth lens group having a positive refracting power, and a fifth lens group having a positive refracting power are arranged. By moving the second lens group toward the imaging plane side, zooming of the zoom lens from the short focal length end to the long focal length end is performed, and a shift in the position of an imaging plane of the zoom lens due to the movement of the second lens group for the zooming is corrected by the fourth lens group. Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 6-180424, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3109342, and Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 9-90221 describe examples of zoom lenses of such type. In each of the zoom lenses of these examples, a shift in the position of an imaging plane occurring in connection with zooming is corrected by movement of the fourth lens group.
Each of the zoom lenses having five lens groups described in the above publications, respectively, is configured such that the fourth lens group is moved solely for correcting a shift in the position of an imaging plane occurring in connection with zooming, and the movement of the fourth lens group does not contribute to the zooming at all. The function of zooming is mostly performed by the second lens group. For this reason, the moving amount of the second lens group for zooming is large, and as a result, the first lens group must be arranged at a distant position from an aperture diaphragm arranged in the third lens group. This leads to increasing the size of the first lens group and furthermore to increasing the overall size of the zoom lens.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-discussed and other problems and addresses the above-discussed and other problems.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a novel zoom lens that has a high zooming ratio exceeding 4.5 times while being extremely small in the outer diameter and the overall length thereof and a wide field angle with a half field angle at the short focal length end of 30xc2x0 or more, and that can attain a high resolution. The preferred embodiments also provide a camera apparatus using the zoom lens, and a portable information terminal apparatus using the camera apparatus.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a zoom lens includes a first lens group having a positive refracting power, a second lens group having a negative refracting power, a third lens group having a positive refracting power, a fourth lens group having a positive refracting power, and a fifth lens group having a positive refracting power. The first lens group, the second group lens, the third lens group, the fourth lens group, and the fifth lens group are arranged in succession. The zoom lens is configured such that, when zooming from a short focal length end toward a long focal length end, the second lens group lens moves toward the third lens group and the fourth lens group moves toward a side of the third lens group, and the fifth lens group corrects the zooming and a shift in a position of an imaging plane of the zoom lens caused by movement of the second lens group and the fourth lens group. When a distance from a first lens surface of the zoom lens at the long focal length end to the imaging plane is xcexa3d, a synthesized focal length of the first lens group through the fifth lens group is fw, and a synthesized focal length of the first lens group through the fifth lens group is ft, a following conditional formula is satisfied:
1.45 less than xcexa3d/(ftxe2x88x92fw) less than 2.2.
Thus, the above-described zoom lens is configured such that when zooming, the fourth lens group is also moved to perform a portion of the zooming and a shift in the position of the imaging plane of the zoom lane involved in the zooming is corrected by moving the fifth lens group. Thereby, the moving amount of the second lens group can be suppressed small, so that the distance of the first lens group from an aperture diaphragm can be reduced and the outer diameter of the first lens group can be made relatively small, and at the same time, the overall size of the zoom lens can be made relatively small. Further, freedom in enhancing the performance of the zoom lens is increased by moving the fifth lens group, so that enhancement of the performance of the zoom lens can be achieved.
The above conditional formula specifies an overall size of the zoom lens, and if the upper limit is exceeded, the overall length of the zoom lens will increase, the outer diameter of the first lens group will increase, the cost of the zoom lens will increase, and the size of a camera using the zoom lens will increase. If the lower limit is exceeded, the power of each lens group will be too strong, so that satisfactory imaging performance will not be obtained. For achieving a higher performance of the zoom lens, it is preferable that the zoom lens is configured such that the following conditional formula is satisfied:
1.6 less than xcexa3d(ftxe2x88x92fw) less than 2.2.
In the above-described zoom lens, the first lens group may be mounted at a fixed position. That is, the first lens group may be a fixed lens group that does not move when the zoom lens is zoomed and when a portion of lens groups moves for focusing. For realizing moving of moving lens groups of a zoom lens with a simple mechanism, it is preferable that the zoom lens is configured such that the first lens group is fixed. The first lens group has a largest outer diameter among the lens groups constituting the zoom lens, and consequently, the first lens group is relatively heavy. Accordingly, it is hard to realize moving of the first lens group with a simple mechanism and reduced power consumption. Further, if the zoom lens is configured such that focusing is performed by the first lens group, the peripheral light quantity at a short photographing distance is greatly reduced as a result of movement of the first lens group, which is undesirable. For avoiding this disadvantage, the first lens group must be made extremely large. By configuring the zoom lens such that the first lens group is fixed as above, as might be expected, the distance from the first lens surface of the zoom lens to the imaging plane is constant through the entire zooming range.
In the above-described zoom lens, an aperture diaphragm may be arranged in the vicinity of the third lens group, and in particular, it is preferable that the aperture diaphragm is arranged at a most outside position of the third lens group at the side of the second lens group. Further, the third lens group including the aperture diaphragm may be mounted at a fixed position.
Generally, a shutter is provided at the position of the aperture diaphragm. A mechanism for moving the shutter is relatively complicated. Further, if the shutter is configured to be moved, vibration at the time of driving the shutter tends to be transmitted to other parts of the zoom lens. This causes deterioration of the performance of the zoom lens, e.g. image burring. Thus, it is preferable that the third lens group including a shutter is not moved.
In the above-described zoom lens, focusing may be performed by a method of letting out the entire portion of the zoom lens, a method of moving a light receiving element such as a CCD, or a so-called internal focusing method in which lens groups other than the first lens group is moved. Specifically, in the above-described zoom lens, focusing of the zoom lens may be achieved by movement of the fifth lens group. Generally, the moving amount of a focusing lens group of a zoom lens when focusing on an object at a same photographing distance is small at the short focal length end and is greater as the focusing lens group is closer to the long focal length end. In the above-described zoom lens of the present invention, the distance between the fourth lens group and the fifth lens group is small at the short focal length end and is greater at the long focal length end. Accordingly, a space in which the fifth lens group is moved for focusing can be obtained without interfering with the fourth lens group at any zooming position. Further, the zoom lens of the present invention is configured such that a shift in the position of an imaging plane involved in zooming the zoom lens is corrected by the fifth lens group. Therefore, the zoom lens of the present invention has an advantage that a moving mechanism and a control mechanism for correcting a shift in the position of an imaging plane and those mechanisms for focusing can be combined.
The above-described zoom lens may be configured such that when a synthesized focal length of the first lens group is f1 and a synthesized focal length of the first lens group and the second lens group at the long focal length end is f12t, the following conditional formula is satisfied:
xe2x88x921.8 less than f12t/f1 less than xe2x88x921.1.
In the above conditional formula, f12t/f1 represents a zooming ratio of the second lens group at the long focal length end, and for making the overall size of the zoom lens small, it is preferable that the above conditional formula is satisfied. If the upper limit is exceeded, contribution of the second lens group to a zooming function will be excessively small, so that a change in an entrance pupil when the zoom lens is zoomed will be reduced, and when the diameter of an aperture diaphragm is fixed, a change in the F number at the long focal length end will be increased relative to that at the short focal length end. If the lower limit is exceeded, contribution of the fourth lens group to a zooming function will be excessively small, so that the power of the first lens group will be too strong and aberration in the first lens group will be excessively large, and thereby satisfactory imaging performance will not be obtained.
For further reducing the overall size of the zoom lens, it is preferable that the zoom lens is configured such that the following conditional formula is satisfied:
xe2x88x921.7 less than f12t/f1 less than xe2x88x921.2.
Further, the above-described zoom lens can be configured such that when a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group at the short focal length end is d1w, a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group at the long focal length end is d1t, a distance between the third lens group and the fourth lens group at the short focal length end is d3w, and a distance between the third lens group and the fourth lens group at the long focal length end is d3t, the following conditional formula is satisfied:
0.3 less than (d3wxe2x88x92d3t)/(d1txe2x88x92d1w) less than 0.8.
The above conditional formula specifies a ratio between a moving amount of the fourth lens group and that of the second lens group when the zoom lens is zoomed. For reducing the size of the zoom lens of the present invention, one may increase the moving amount of the fourth lens group to a certain extent. If the ratio exceeds the lower limit, the moving amount of the second lens group (the denominator of the above conditional formula) will be increased or the moving amount of the fourth lens group (the numerator of the above conditional formula) will be decreased, so that a portion of a zooming function performed by the fourth lens group will be reduced, and thereby the size of the zoom lens will not be reduced. Conversely, if the ratio exceeds the upper limit, the moving amount of the fourth lens group will be increased, a portion of a zooming function performed by the fourth lens group will be increased, and a portion of the zooming function performed by the second lens group will be decreased, so that satisfactory zooming will not be performed, thereby causing deterioration in the imaging performance.
For further reducing the overall size of the zoom lens and enhancing the zooming performance, it is preferable that the following conditional formula is satisfied:
0.4 less than (d3wxe2x88x92d3t)/(d1txe2x88x92d1w) less than 0.7.
Further, the above-described zoom lens may be configured such that each of the first lens group and the second lens group includes three pieces of lens, the fourth lens group includes four pieces of lens, and the fifth lens group includes one piece of lens, and such that each of the second lens group through the fifth lens group includes one or more non-spherical surfaces. For obtaining a high performance zoom lens, each aberration must be suppressed small. For correcting each aberration satisfactorily, one may increase the number of lenses constituting the zoom lens to a certain extent, and aberration in each lens must be suppressed small. However, if the number of lenses increases, the thickness of each lens group increases, so that the overall size of the zoom lens cannot be reduced, and at the same time the construction of the zoom lens is complicated, causing the cost of the zoom lens to be increased.
Therefore, in the above-described zoom lens of the present invention, each of the first lens group and the second lens group is constituted of a relatively small number of lenses, i.e., three pieces of lens, and the fourth lens group is constituted of four pieces of lens so that an effect of deterioration in the imaging performance due to decentering of each lens of the fourth lens group is decreased. Further, the fifth lens group is constituted of one piece of lens. When the fifth lens group is moved for correcting a shift in the position of an imaging plane and for focusing, because the number of lenses constituting the fifth lens group is small and thereby the fifth lens group is light, the fifth lens group can be moved by less energy. For maintaining a satisfactory imaging performance in a zoom lens constituted of a small number of lenses as described above, it is preferable that each of the second lens group through the fifth lens group has one or more non-spherical surfaces.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a zoom lens includes a first lens group having a positive refracting power, a second lens group having a negative power, a third lens group having a positive refracting power, a fourth lens group having a positive refracting power, and a fifth lens group having a positive refracting power. The first lens group, the second group lens, the third lens group, the fourth lens group, and the fifth lens group are arranged in succession. The zoom lens is configured such that when zooming from a short focal length end toward a long focal length end, at least a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group increases, and a distance between the second lens group and the third lens group and a distance between the third lens group and the fourth lens group decrease. When a distance from a first lens surface of the zoom lens to an imaging plane of the zoom lens at the long focal length end is xcexa3d, an image height is yxe2x80x2, and a zooming ratio is Z, a following condition is satisfied:
xcexa3d/(Zxc3x97yxe2x80x2) less than 3.5.
A background zoom lens including five lens groups, a first lens group having a positive power, a second lens group having a negative power, a third lens group having a positive power, a fourth lens group having positive power, and a fifth lens group having a positive power, is configured such that when zooming, the first lens group, the third lens group, and fifth lens group are fixed, the second lens group is moved, thereby zooming of the zoom lens being performed, and a shift in the position of an imaging plane of the zoom lens associated with the zooming is corrected by moving the fourth lens group. Therefore, the moving amount of the second lens group for performing the zooming is relatively large, and the first lens group must be arranged at a distant position from an aperture diaphragm arranged in the third lens group, so that the size of the first lens group is increased, thereby the overall size of the zoom lens being increased.
The immediately above-described zoom lens of the present invention is configured such that when zooming the second lens group moves toward the third lens group and at the same time the fourth lens group moves toward the third lens group, thereby the zooming being performed, and a shift in the position of the imaging plane due to movement of the second lens group and the fourth lens group is corrected by the fifth lens group. By configuring the zoom lens as above, a portion of the zooming is performed by the fourth group also, in addition to the second lens group, and a shift in the position of the imaging plane due to the zooming is corrected by the fifth lens group. Thereby, the moving amount of the second lens group can be suppressed small and the distance of the first lens group from the aperture diaphragm can be reduced, so that the outer diameter of the first lens group can be made small and the overall size of the zoom lens can be reduced, and at the same time, by moving the fifth lens group, freedom in enhancing the performance of the zoom lens is increased, so that enhancement of the performance can be achieved.
The above conditional formula specifies the overall size of the zoom lens, and if the upper limit is exceeded, the overall length of the zoom lens will increase, the outer diameter of the first lens group will increase, the cost of the zoom lens will greatly increase, and the size of a camera apparatus using the zoom lens will increase.
In the immediately above-described zoom lens, the first lens group may be mounted at a fixed position. That is, the first lens group may be a fixed lens group that does not move when the zoom lens is zoomed and when a portion of lens groups moves for focusing. For realizing moving of moving lens groups of a zoom lens with a simple mechanism, it is preferable that the zoom lens is configured such that the first lens group is fixed. The first lens group has a largest outer diameter among the lens groups constituting the zoom lens, and consequently, the first lens group is relatively heavy. Accordingly, it is hard to realize moving of the first lens group with a simple mechanism and reduced power consumption. Further, if the zoom lens is configured such that focusing is performed by the first lens group, the peripheral light quantity at a short photographing distance is greatly reduced as a result of movement of the first lens group, which is undesirable. For avoiding this disadvantage, the first lens group must be made extremely large. By configuring the zoom lens such that the first lens group is fixed as above, as might be expected, the distance from the first lens surface of the zoom lens to the imaging plane is constant through the entire zooming range. In the immediately above-described zoom lens, an aperture diaphragm may be arranged in the vicinity of the third lens group, and in particular, it is preferable that the aperture diaphragm is arranged at a most outside position of the third lens group at a side of the second lens group. Further, it is preferable that the third lens group including the aperture diaphragm is mounted at a fixed position.
Generally, a shutter is provided at the position of the aperture diaphragm. A mechanism for moving the shutter is relatively complicated. Further, if the shutter is moved, vibration at the time of driving the shutter tends to be transmitted to other parts of the zoom lens, causing deterioration of the performance of the zoom lens, e.g. image burring. Thus, it is preferable that the third lens group including a shutter is not moved.
The immediately above-described zoom lens may be configured such that when a focal length of the second lens group is f2, a synthesized focal length of the first lens group through the fifth lens group at the short focal length end is fw, the following conditional formula is satisfied:
0.68 less than xe2x88x92f2/fw less than 2.0.
In the above conditional formula, xe2x88x92f2/fw specifies a range of power of the second lens group, and for reducing the overall size of the zoom lens, it is preferable that the above conditional formula is satisfied. If the upper limit is exceeded, the power of the second lens group will be excessively weak, the moving amount of the second lens group when the zoom lens is moved will increase, so that the overall size of the zoom lens will not be reduced. If the lower limit is exceeded, contribution of the fourth lens group to a zooming function will be excessively small, so that the power of the first lens group will be excessively strong and aberration in the first lens group will be excessively increased, and thereby satisfactory imaging performance will not be obtained.
Further, the immediately above-described zoom lens may be configured such that focusing of the zoom lens is achieved by movement of the fifth lens group. Generally, the moving amount of a focusing lens group of a zoom lens when focusing on an object at a same photographing distance is small at the short focal length end and is greater as the focusing lens group is closer to the long focal length end. In the above-described zoom lens of the present invention, the distance between the fourth lens group and the fifth lens group is small at the short focal length end and is greater at the long focal length end. Accordingly, a space in which the fifth lens group is moved for focusing can be obtained without interfering with the fourth lens group at any zooming position. Further, the zoom lens of the present invention is configured such that a shift in the position of an imaging plane of the zoom lens involved in zooming the zoom lens is corrected by the fifth lens group. Therefore, the zoom lens of the present invention has an advantage that a moving mechanism and a control mechanism for correcting a shift in the position of an imaging plane can be combined with those mechanisms for focusing.
Furthermore, the immediately above-described zoom lens may be configured such that each of the first lens group and the second lens group includes three pieces of lens, the fourth lens group includes three or four pieces of lens, and the fifth lens group includes one piece of lens.
For obtaining a high performance zoom lens, each aberration must be suppressed small. For correcting each aberration satisfactorily, one may increase the number of lenses constituting the zoom lens to a certain extent, and aberration in each lens must be suppressed small. However, if the number of lenses constituting the zoom lens increases, the thickness of each lens group increases, so that the overall size of the zoom lens cannot be reduced, and at the same time the construction of the zoom lens is complicated and thereby the cost of the zoom lens is increased.
Therefore, in the above-described zoom lens of the present invention, each of the first lens group and the second lens group is constituted of a relatively small number of lenses, i.e., three pieces of lens, and the fourth lens group is constituted of three or four pieces of lens for reducing an effect of deterioration in the imaging performance due to decentering of each lens of the fourth lens group. Further, the fifth lens group is constituted of one piece of lens. When the fifth lens group is moved for correcting a shift in the position of an imaging plane and for focusing, because the number of lenses constituting the fifth lens group is small and thereby the fifth lens group is light, the fifth lens group can be moved by less energy.
Furthermore, each of the first lens group through the third lens group may include one or more non-spherical surfaces. By configuring the zoom lens as described above, satisfactory imaging performance can be maintained despite that the number of lenses constituting the zoom lens is relatively small.
Still further, the first lens group may be constituted of three pieces of lens, a negative lens and a first positive lens that are joined, and a second positive lens. By configuring the first lens group as above, color aberration of the first lens group can be suppressed small, and at the same time aberration at the positions outside of an optical axe can be suppressed small and the field angle can be made wide. Still further, the second lens group may be constituted of three pieces of lens, a first negative lens, and a second negative lens and a positive lens that are joined. With this configuration of the second lens group, aberration change of the second lens group when the zoom lens is zoomed can be suppressed small, color aberration of the second lens group can be suppressed small, and deterioration of the imaging performance due to decentering in the second lens group can be made small.
Each of the above-described zoom lenses of the present invention can be configured such that a diameter of an aperture diaphragm at the long focal length end is greater than a diameter of an aperture diaphragm at the short focal length end.
In recent years, for achieving high quality of a recorded image, the technology of CCDs have greatly progressed in increasing their resolutions, and a CCD having the total number of picture elements from 3 millions to 4 millions has been materialized. In order to realize both of increasing the resolution and decreasing the size of a CCD, the size of one picture element has been reduced. For example, the size of one picture element of a 1/2.7 type CCD having the total number of picture elements of 4 millions is extremely small, for example, about 2.8 xcexcm. A zoom lens using a CCD in which the size of a picture element is extremely small as above must have a satisfactory imaging performance at an extremely high evaluation frequency such as 180 line/mm. At this time, if the F number is dark, the imaging performance is decreased because of an effect of diffraction even when no aberration exists in the zoom lens. In each of the above-described zoom lenses of the present invention, by configuring the second lens group and the fourth lens group such that contribution to zooming of the zoom lens is appropriately shared, a change in the F number at the long focal length end from that at the short focal length end is suppressed small. However, in order to increase the performance at the long focal length end at a high evaluation frequency exceeding, for example, 180 line/mm, it is preferable that the F number at the long focal length end is brighter. For this reason, in each of the above-described zoom lenses of the present invention, in order to increase the brightness at the long focal length end, the diameter of the aperture diaphragm at the long focal length end is greater than a diameter of an aperture diaphragm at the short focal length end.
For further decreasing the size of the zoom lens, it is preferable that the fourth lens group is constituted of four pieces of lens and the following two conditional formulas are satisfied:
2.25 less than xcexa3d/(Zxc3x97yxe2x80x2) less than 2.9 and 0.8 less than xe2x88x92f2/fw less than 1.45.
Each of the above-described zoom lenses can be used for a zoom lens for projection, for example, in a liquid crystal projector, etc. In this case, a liquid crystal as an object is arranged at the fifth lens group side and a light emerged from the first lens group side is enlarged and projected on a screen as an imaging plane.
Each of the above-described zoom lenses may be configured to serve as a photographing zoom lens with the first lens group arranged at the side of an object. By arranging the first lens surface of the first lens group at the side of an object, an image of the object can be reduced and imaged on a light receiving element such as a CCD, so that a satisfactory imaging performance can be obtained.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a camera apparatus using any one of the above-described zoom lenses for a photographing zoom lens is provided.
The camera apparatus may include a device for converting a photographed image into digital information.
The camera apparatus records an image of an object via any one of the zooms lenses of the present invention configured to be used for a photographing zoom lens. The camera apparatus may be practiced as a silver film camera using a silver film for a recording medium and a digital camera or a digital video camera in which an image of an object is imaged on a light receiving element such as a CCD and information of the object is recorded as digital information. The camera apparatus thus realized is extremely compact in size, has a high zooming ratio and a high image quality, and saves energy consumption.
The above-described camera may be configured such that a light receiving element receiving an image light of an object imaged by a zoom lens has the number of picture elements equal to or greater than 3 millions. As the number of picture elements of a light receiving element increases, the density of recording an image of an object increases. By using a light receiving element having the number of picture elements equal to or greater than 3 millions, the camera apparatus can obtain a photographed image with such a quality that when the photographed image is printed by a printer, the quality of the printed image is equal to or better than that of a photographed image photographed on a silver film by a conventional silver film camera.
According to still another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a portable information terminal apparatus is provided. The portable information terminal apparatus includes any of the above-described camera apparatuses of the present invention and a communication interface for transmitting via communication data recorded by the camera apparatus for example to a personal computer. By using any of the above-described camera apparatuses of the present invention, the portable information terminal apparatus can be remarkably compact and can obtain recorded data of high quality.